The war of words between former between Jon Fitch and his former employer UFC president Dana White continue. After debating the merits of money Fitch now accuses the promotion of being more entertainment than sport.

I have to admit that I am enjoying the back and forth between Fitch and White. Both have made valid points while at the same time both have said some things that make them look quite silly to the casual eye. Most of their debate has been about money but now Fitch has taken an even deeper shot, Fitch is questioning the UFC’s integrity.

Fitch, who was fired in February after losing to Demian Maia, believes that the UFC are only putting guys in position to win who are marketable. Fitch points to Maia himself as evidence that the UFC are more interested in promoting the entertainment over competition in regards to Maia’s next fight against Josh Koscheck.

“That’s a fight that doesn’t do anything for Demian Maia,” Fitch said. “They don’t want to put him in a situation where he can climb the ladder, because they don’t feel like he can make them money.”

Quite frankly he’s right. I know there are a lot of fans out there who despise Fitch, more for his style of fighting than his personality. However, like him or not Fitch is now piggybacking on a popular topic as of late in the MMA world of social media. Especially when the UFC is booking more challengers in championship fights coming off losses than at any other time in UFC history.

Back to Maia. He is dead right and the fight really doesn’t make a lot of sense. It is fairly uncommon for the UFC to promote a fight between two fighters coming off losses. It certainly happens but there really is something odd about promoting a fight between a fighter coming off of two losses against a fighter on a three-fight winning streak.

I think you can make a case that the UFC are holding Maia back from progressing to a championship fight. Fitch was in that same boat in the UFC although he never closed the deal when he had a chance. Johny Hendricks is another guy that comes to mind who should have had a title fight by now. It is obvious that the UFC are scared to death of promoting another championship fight with Maia. Now some of that blame has to be put on Maia who fought an embarrassing fight when he was given a title shot against Anderson Silva. However, that was also three years ago and a lot has changed. Maia isn’t the same fighter and while he is never going to erase those UFC 112 memories away from fans who saw the fight, he certainly deserves better than Josh Koscheck.

Fitch compared it to pro wrestling and remarked how tough it is to be the best in the world when you aren’t given those opportunities. Again Fitch did have his opportunities as Dana White pointed out so a lot of this comes off as sour grapes. Yet if you take the name out of the statement, it would read like something that is tweeted often by MMA fans upset at recent UFC match making.

I can’t imagine that Dana White would have anything to say about this.

Eric Gargiulo is the owner and editor-in-chief of the Camel Clutch Blog. Eric has worked in the pro wrestling industry since 1995 as a ring announcer in ECW and a commentator/host on television, PPV, and home video. Eric also hosted Pro Wrestling Radio on terrestrial radio from 1998-2009. Check out some of Eric's work on his IMDB bio and Wikipedia.